


Of Ghouls and Ghosts

by Enby_Scientist



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Deacon is gonna be a little shit later on, M/M, Max my SoSu is trans but it isnt really mentioned, Multi, Polyamory, Post Game, Trans Male Character, everybody knows the sole survivor but nobody tells poor David, railroad ending, tags added as updated
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-27
Updated: 2016-11-02
Packaged: 2018-05-29 13:02:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6375838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Enby_Scientist/pseuds/Enby_Scientist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>-Working title, may change-</p><p>It took David over 200 years to be brave enough to make it back to the commonwealth to finally say goodbye to his husband, wife, and child. But when he gets there two of the three aren't as long gone as he first thought...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first proper attempt at a multi chapter fic so feedback would be much loved!  
> Reference for my SoSu : http://enbys-art-blog.tumblr.com/post/141798318599/my-sosu-max-he-dosnt-normally-wear-the-courser (David and Catherine don't have solid looks yet...)

It had taken literal centuries worth of courage for David to make his way back to Boston and the last thing he expected was to be told to fuck off when he approached the gates to the baseball stadium. The old ghoul turned on his heel and stalked away.  
\-----  
It was probably only Catherine who had her eyes on the game, Max was more focussed on his hotdog and David himself was more focussed on Max as a glob of ketchup fell from the 'dog and landed on his shirt. Max's head darted up to check if anyone had saw this before catching David's eye and laughing it off.  
\-----  
After getting some friendlier directions David found himself entering through the gate of a somewhat more shady looking town which called itself Goodneighbor. Straight across were two shops, deciding not to talk to the assultron that stood in one booth, there were some bad memories there let me tell you, he headed to the other store front.  
" Hey doll," greeted the ghoul behind the counter "Ain't seen your face round here before. You looking to buy 'n' sell or do you want directions?"  
"Directions mostly, was told I can get a bed here." David gave a lopsided grin.  
"Oh aren't you trying to be a charmer." Daisy laughed "Not gonna work Hun"  
"Worth a shot"  
"Sure, sure. Anyway if you have the caps there the hotel Rexford, if not head to the top floor of the State house," she said inclining her head to the building. " might have to fight for a mattress if you spend too long elsewhere but it's free."  
David thanked her and headed over to the hotel and bunked down for the night. 

The next morning David headed back over to Daisy's shop hoping to get more directions. As he approached a man in a blue military coat and cap left the store accompanied by another man in a ripped tan coat. The first man's face was almost completely covered with a bandanna and a pair of goggles but he waved goodbye to Daisy as he left Goodneighbor.  
"Morning Doll!" Daisy called over to David, "Sleep well?"  
"Well as to be expected. So... Who was that?" He asked, pointing a thumb over his shoulder to the now closed gate.  
"Trouble, pair of 'em" Daisy said, although she was smiling fondly. "The lanky one was MacCreedy, ex mercenary, if there is such a thing. The other one... Well you ever heard talk of the Vault dweller on Diamond city radio? That's him. Heart's in the right place but he's a magnet for trouble that one." She shook her head "Anyway how can I help you this morning?"  
"I'm hoping for more directions to be honest." David said spreading out an old map. "Before the war I used to live up here," He gestured to the north-west corner. "I haven't been back there since before the bombs dropped, I was deployed up north you see. I just want to go back there to say some goodbyes I guess..." Daisy studied the map for a few moments.  
"Right so you're heading for Sanctuary. Quite the settlement nowadays but very ghoul friendly and they'll understand why you're up there. Looked after by the Minutemen so it's well protected." She paused to work something out. "You'll want to head this way," she said tracing a finger along the map "This avoids most of the Raider camps and is regularly used by the Minutemen supply lines so you might be able to join up with one of them. It's not the quickest way but it's the safest for a one man party..."  
David nodded and said his goodbyes before leaving the gates of Goodneighbor to make his way north.


	2. Chapter 2

It took most of the morning for David to reach the outer edges of the city and to Bunker Hill. For the most part, there was no issue moving through the ruined streets but as he turned down a side alley he heard the telltale noises of pipe pistol being loaded. He shrunk into a darkened stairwell and held his breath.  
“Who’s there?” The raider yelled, hidden from view “Come on now! Me and Frankie will make it quick for ‘ya, won’t we Frankie?”  
There was no answer but the raider kept searching, passing by the entrance to where David was hiding they had a lawn flamingo strapped to their back…  
David slowly levelled his pistol at the raider’s head, taking aim and firing off two quick shots.

  
The air hung still for a moment as the raider dropped to the ground with a dull thud. David remained still, straining his ears for any sign of any other raiders coming over to investigate. Once satisfied that there were none he began making his way into the more open land past Cambridge.

  
It was just beginning to get dark as He came across the old drive-in movie theatre. Finding the door to the projector tower unlocked he slipped inside, pulling a set of shelves in front of the door to keep it closed. He was pleasantly surprised to find a mattress at the top of the building, setting out his bedroll on top he settled down for the night.

  
David awoke to see the sun straining through the green tinted sky, no rain was falling and there was a tang in the air indicating that the storm had passed. Feeling relieved, while the radiation didn’t do anything to him anymore traveling wet was never fun, he opened up a can of beans with a knife and idly began picking at it as he packed up and double checked his gear before heading back out.

  
Back in Goodneighbor Daisy had warned him to avoid going through the middle of Concord and so David kept to the eastern outskirts of the town, joining back onto the main road just as the Red Rocket building came into view.

  
At first, David thought there was a crowd stood along the edge of the roof but as he squinted through the sun he realised it was lined with power armor suits , at least twenty-five of them in varying condition had been placed along the edge of the roof. David shrugged it off, he’d seen people collect weirder things in his over two hundred years of existence. He remembered how Max used to collect photos of the trafficking hauls him and his dog used to pick up after Max had been discharged from the army and took up a job on the k9 customs team at the Boston airport.

  
He smiled sadly as he turned his attention to the old wooden bridge that spanned the river to Sanctuary. The crossing was well guarded but the gates were open and the turrets on standby. Behind them, David could see quite a busy town.  
He rolled his shoulders back, took a deep breath to steady himself and began crossing the bridge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait! I hope this doesn't feel too short, it just felt like the natural end point for the chapter... This chapter featured a cameo for my friend and beta Tipnex on Tumblr!  
> Also, that collection of the power armour is a thing that I've been doing in my first game, I have at least thirty sets now!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait! I hope this makes up for it!!

David remembered the day the three of them had moved in to the little house in Sanctuary Hills. Well officially it was only Catherine and Max that were moving in as they were the married couple here and David had regular tours of duty which made it hard to hold onto a place but the little bungalow was theirs. 

They had gotten it because Catherine had just begun to show and the tiny bed-sit flat the three shared before was, while more private than the suburban home they had now moved into, no real place to raise a young baby. 

It had been sad to see the old apartment go, but after getting the mattress down on the floor and the Tv linked up the trio had given up on unpacking for the day and ordered pizza. Settling down for the evening watching an old film while curled up on the mattress together. 

Shaking his head sadly David took in the town in front of him now. On the other side of the bridge stood a wooden fence reaching around the island a fair ways in both directions. Directly ahead stood a tall gate which currently was being held open by some cinder blocks. 

As he entered the gates he noted two guards with modified laser muskets, he nodded a greeting to which they returned. As David walked up the slight hill he began to see why Daisy had described Sanctuary as she had. Tucked out from view from the bridge was a bustling marketplace with traders advertising their wears along the main road. The majority of the pre war houses were still standing and had been patched up and people moved in and out of them chatting and just going about their business.   
There was one house, however, without the hustle and bustle of the others... With a painful pang David realised that the house was his own, well at least it used to be his. 

The house had been patched up just like the rest, great care being taken to board up windows and broken walls. Hubflowers had been carefully planted in the borders and two flags were placed against the outer walls in place of the windows, one a blue flag that David had seen in a few locations in the commonwealth and the other an orange flag with a white lantern design emblazoned on the front.   
"That's Whisper's place" came a voice behind him. David span around, just stopping his hand from flying to his hip out of habit. The man now in front of him raised an eyebrow from behind a pair of sunglasses, he was a few inches shorter than David, a smooth-skin, but shaved baled and dressed in non-assuming clothes. There was something about him though, David thought, an air that he knew a bit more about you then he had a right to know...   
"W-what?" David stumbled over the word slightly, the man didn't appear to react but with the glasses it was hard to tell.   
"Thats Whisper's place," he repeated "Or the Vault dweller or the Sole Survivor, depending on who you talk to..."  
"Oh..." David remembered the two men who he had seen leaving Goodneighbor the previous morning, Daisy had called him the Vault dweller too, he wondered if they where the same person. There were a lot of vaults in the commonwealth but to have one with people who arn't dead or horribly mutated was very, vary rare so it was more likely they were the same.   
"And you are?..." The man broke through David's thoughts with the question.   
"Oh I'm David, David LaBronxe" David said distractedly, shaking his head to clear the thoughts for a moment, focusing on the conversation in front of him.   
"And you?" He asked.   
"I go by Deacon" the man, Deacon, said. The phrasing didn't slip past David, nor did the ever so slight creacing of his bow at his own name. But as quickly as it was there it was gone as a carefully controlled smirk went in it's place.   
"So David," Deacon began, plucking out a cigarette from a pocket and offering it to the other man who took it, "What brings /you/ to the fair town of Sanctuary?"  
David dug around in his coat till he found a lighter. Lighting the cigarette and inhaling deeply.   
"I used to live here, before the war I mean." David shrugged before indicating back over his shoulder to the house, "Right there specifically. It's the first time I've been back in..." He paused to work it out, "211 years and 5 months, give or take"  
Deacon let out a low whistle.   
"That's a long time... What have you been doing?"  
David smiled ruefully,  
"Traveling, been up and down the country. Tried to settle a couple of times, never stuck though."  
Deacon had opened his mouth to respond when there was the sound of barking and a large dog followed by two young boys ran past and towards the gate.   
"Anndddd that'll be Whisper home." Deacon said, inclining his head and making to walk over to the gate himself. "You coming?" He asked. David nodded following after him. 

At the base of the hill he could see a small group of people surrounding the two Newcomers. It was in fact the two men he had seen leaving Goodneighbor. The two boys soon joined the group and each one was hoisted into the air by the men. 

As David approached he could see the features of the man who had been masked the previous day, dark brown choppy hair, green eyes... A distinctive burn crossing his face over his nose. Which a pang in his chest he realised who the man was the spitting image of...  
"Max..." he said, perhaps a little loudly.   
The man looked up and met his eyes.


End file.
